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Over the last decades, China has rapidly increased its influence throughout the South Asian region, using both its hard and soft power tactics. China has succeeded in eclipsing India's influence and emerged as an important player in the region. China is making inroads in South Asia by making huge investments and constructing roads, highways, railways, sea ports, bridges, power grids, dams, and public buildings. China is pursuing a foreign policy that aims to advance its strategic and economic interests while trying to imbalance India's predominant position and contain India within the boundaries of South Asia. This is to prevent the rise of a peer competitor that can challenge or hinder the rise of China as a sole Asian power. This paper argues that the geostrategic situation of South Asian countries is such that they pose threats to India's security by aligning with the extra-regional powers. Hence, China's expanding strategic and security ties with South Asian countries have wider implications for India's security due to the complex and sensitive nature of its relationship with China. The theoretical approach of Power Transition Theory has been utilized to analyze the Sino-India power rivalry and China's growing threat to India's security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is linked to cybercrimes of diverse types, scales, motivations and objectives. The Chinese cyberspace thus provides an interesting setting for the study of cybercrimes. In this paper, we first develop typology, classification and characterization of cybercrimes associated with China, which would help us understand modus operandi, structures, profiles and personal characteristics of cybercrime organizations and potential perpetrators, the signature aspects and goals of cybercrimes, the nature and backgrounds of the criminal groups involved, characteristics of potential targets for criminal activities, the nature and extent of the damage inflicted on the victims and the implications to and responses elicited from various actors. We then examine this issue from developmental and international political economy angles. Specifically, we delineate salient features of China's politics, culture, human capital and technological issues from the standpoint of cyber-security and analyze emerging international relations and international trade issues associated with this phenomenon. Our analysis indicates that China's global ambition, the shift in the base of regime legitimacy from MarxLeninism to economic growth, the strong state and weak civil society explain the distinctive pattern of the country's cyber-attack and cyber-security landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the issue of causalities among five different indices of shares issued by Chinese firms, A and B Shares listed in the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges, and H Shares listed in the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. By measuring cross autocorrelations and conducting Granger causality tests, we found that the causality relationships among the five different indices went through significant changes after early 1996; B Shares became more influential relative to the other shares. B Shares in China have tended to lead H Shares in Hong Kong since 1996. Although A Shares tended to lead B Shares before 1996, such relationships either disappeared or were reversed after 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the engagement of domestic actors in public conversation surrounding free trade negotiations with a focus on the framing of these negotiations as economic, strategic or domestic issues. To analyse this topic, this article utilises the use of Twitter as a barometer of public sentiment toward the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). We employ topic classification and sentiment analysis to understand how RCEP is discussed in 345,015 tweets. Our findings show that the overall sentiment score towards RCEP is neutral. However, we find that when RCEP is discussed as a strategic issue, the sentiment is slightly more negative than when discussed as a domestic or economic issue. This article further suggests that discussion of RCEP is driven by the fear of China's geopolitical ambitions, domestic protectionist agendas, and impact of RCEP on the domestic economy. This article contributes to the growing use of big data in understanding trade negotiations. Furthermore, it contributes to the study of free trade negotiation by examining how domestic political actors frame free trade negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North Korea has defied the international community on its nuclear program despite diplomatic and economic pressure. Why has the country been willing and able to defy and resist the international community? What should we do about it? Many stress China's ties with North Korea and believe that the question of whether China is willing to use its leverage on North Korea is the key to the solution to the Korean nuclear issue. This paper draws from international relations theories and the history of China–North Korea relations to analyze North Korean foreign policy strategy. Two arguments are made, namely: first, that North Korea does not view its relationship with China as highly as many would think; and, second, that China's role in North Korea's strategic planning is not significant enough to change its behavior. Therefore, it is argued, asking China to use its leverage on North Korea would not solve the Korean nuclear crisis. On the contrary, the more China puts pressure on North Korea, the more likely the latter would resist. A possible way ahead in dealing with the Korean nuclear issue is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to the special issue, we use the expression "China in the world" paradigm to define scholarship that purposefully migrates across the traditional borders of comparative politics and international relations in the study of China. We argue that such a paradigm represents a view that many issues of Chinese domestic politics are now issues of international politics; as a result, domestic politics in a globalized contemporary China often cannot be sufficiently understood without considering international consequences. More than this, the paradigm is about scholarly attentiveness to the fact that the politics in China that we study also shapes how the rest of the world views China. We describe the paradigm and its antecedents in the scholarly literature. We then illustrate, with reference to three momentous events that captured public attention around the world in 2020, the paradigm's usefulness as a perspective to scholars reaching out to engage intellectually on contemporary affairs in an environment in which global responses to China require nuanced knowledge as all parties seek to avoid dangerous pitfalls. We conclude by summarizing the five articles included in the special issue and the broader implications of the "China in the world" paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on international cooperative research between China and other countries and the role that China's diaspora is playing in making it a growing center of international collaboration. It states China's largest collaborator is the U.S., with Germany as its next strongest collaborative partner. It mentions the increase in collaboration for research chemistry and the physical sciences. It presents charts of China's global research network and links between China and other nations.

In China, the central government has released a series of key policy initiatives over the last twenty years to foster decentralisation of control over higher education, giving prominence to discourses of increased autonomy for both universities and academics. This article reports findings of an empirical study of changing autonomy in Chinese higher education and it focuses on the effects of these key policy developments in two case study universities. This research was part of a larger study of new power relationships emerging from changing policies on accountability and autonomy in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore, located within a broader context of the impact of globalisation on higher education. The focus on the three regions was selected to begin to redress a Western hegemony in such research. The larger study is premised on the principle that globalisation is characterised by ongoing tensions between global commonalities and context-specific differences, and that it is important not to gloss over the complex and often contradictory national and local mediations of “global” policy trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impressive setting, harmonious atmosphere, far-reaching promises: Under the banner of »Friendship, Peace, Cooperation and Development« 1,700 delegates from China and 4-8 African countries celebrated a tentative climax of 50 years of diplomatic ties at the third Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing in November 2006. The Beijing Action Plan adopted there fosters »a new strategic partnership« and outlines China's comprehensive commitments up to 2009. While China's underlying interests and the scope and nature of and hitches to the rapidly deepening trade, investment and aid relations between China and Africa are discussed frequently, an understanding of how this partnership is actually perceived in the countries concerned is often lacking. China is anxious to achieve its strategic objectives in Africa (access to markets and resources, diplomatic support) in a way .that is coherent with its five principles of peaceful coexistence. The desire for conflict avoidance and harmony is deeply rooted in China, and this became manifest in the grandiose stage the government prepared in Beijing to underline its respect for its African guests. China's principle of non-interference is also reflected in its suspicion towards OECD countries' comments on its Africa policy. Considering itself a lead nation in Africa, South Africa views China as a strategic South-South-partner on the global stage, and has also started to recognize the need to actively shape its relations to the Asian giant. Potential links between FOCAC and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) are being discussed, as is China's impact on the national economy. The OECD countries' criticism of China's engagement in Africa is perceived to be largely hypocritical. The Kenyan government is portraying China as a new, friendly donor offering a welcome alternative to Western aid and conditionalities. However, concerns about the widening trade deficit and Chinese competition in domestic and third markets are growing. Hopes with regard to exports to China and tourism from China have not materialized yet, and the limits of China's friendship and the Chinese sensitivity to any criticism are coming increasingly to be recognized. Yet strategies designed to shape the relations are still lacking. In Europe, China's engagement in Africa is largely viewed as a scramble for resources. Criticism focuses on China's unconditional loans, its non-adherence to Western good governance and environmental standards, and its lack of transparency. Overall, it is becoming apparent that intensified China-Africa ties are fundamentally changing the preconditions for Africa's development. A political and economic alternative to the West is emerging for African countries. Being perceived as a partner rather than a recipient constitutes a boost for Africa's self-esteem. However, while China has a rather clear-cut Africa agenda, African countries are neither clear about their own strategy nor in any way united. A »trialogue« between European, African, and Chinese partners should be aimed for, one focusing more on common interests, such as the NEPAD process, and less on obvious differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on relations between Taiwan and China in light of research in Taiwan. Political tensions between the two countries; Role of returning ethnic Chinese scientists to Taiwan in the country's electronics industry; Dedication of the Taiwanese government to promote both academic and industrial research and development.

The cold war dominated American perceptions of the People's Republic of China during the 1950s and 1960s, and opinions of China were correspondingly negative. Improved Sino-American relations, accompanied by domestic reforms in China, led to a gradual improvement in American attitudes toward China during the 197th and 1980s. By the late 1980s, Americans held positive perceptions of China and its relations with the United States, but continued to view the People's Republic as communist and undemocratic. This sort of inconsistency is characteristic of periods of cognitive transition: some established perceptions are slower to change than others, and this results in structural imbalance. The Tiananmen Square massacre of June 1989 interrupted this transitional process and sent perceptions of China shooting back toward balanced, cold war stereotypes. The massacre set the Chinese government in a clear symbolic struggle against freedom and democracy. This rekindled latent cold war images of China and elicited disapproving rhetoric from American leaders. The result was a quicic reversion to negative perceptions of China, structured by a lingering cold war schema. These processes are demonstrated through the presentation of a study that explores the cognitive structure of perceptions of China both before and after the massacre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]